Because of their thinness, the short cooking time required, and the high fat and water content of the raw product, bacon slices are among the most difficult products to cook consistently. The continuous bacon cooking processes heretofore used in the industry have not been able to provide precooked sliced bacon products having the same texture, bite, mouth feel, color, and appearance as pan-fried products cooked in the home. Thus, a need presently exists for a significantly improved continuous process and system capable of producing such precooked sliced bacon products. A need particularly exists for a process of this type which (a) will provide a production rate similar to the microwave processing systems currently used in the art, (b) will take up less floor space in the processing facility, and (c) will eliminate or at least greatly reduce the fire risk posed by other systems.
Heretofore, in the United States, precooked sliced bacon products have been predominantly produced using continuous microwave oven systems. Such microwave cooking processes have typically involved the steps of (a) preconditioning belly, shoulder, or back bacon or a formed bacon log to a temperature in the range of from about −4° to about 5° C.; (b) passing the preconditioned bacon through a Grote Slicer or similar slicing device; and then (c) conveying the sliced bacon through a continuous microwave oven. As will be understood by those in the art, the Grote Slicer is typically positioned to place the bacon slices directly on the oven conveyor as they are cut.
Unfortunately, the continuous microwave processes heretofore used for producing precooked sliced bacon products have significant shortcomings and disadvantages. For one thing, there are significant organaleptic differences between the product produced by a continuous microwave process versus a traditional home-fried product. This is clue in large part to the fact that the microwave energy has a more pronounced effect on the fat and water components of the bacon than on other parts. Thus, the microwave product has a significantly different texture, mouth feel, bite, appearance, and color. In addition, continuous microwave oven systems can be as much as 70 feet or more in length and, thus, take up a great deal of space in the processing facility.
As an alternative to continuous microwave cooking, precooked sliced bacon products have also been produced using continuous linear circulating air oven systems. Unfortunately, however, the products produced in the linear circulating air oven systems have been even less crisp and lighter in color than the microwave products. In addition, the linear circulating air systems have had a tendency to burn or blacken the edges of the bacon slices and have also required an even greater amount of floor space to achieve throughputs approaching those of the microwave systems. Further, because of the large amount of hot, flammable grease produced when cooking bacon, the fire risk presented by a circulating air oven is very high.
In addition, as will also be understood by those in the art, the general trend in the meat industry for achieving improvements in circulating air cooking processes has been toward the use of increasingly higher flow circulation rates and impingement velocities. Unfortunately, however, the application of high velocity impingement air to the rather delicate, thinly sliced bacon product traveling through the oven causes the product to be displaced on (i.e., to be moved on or blown off of) the oven conveyor belt. Also, linear impingement oven systems would still take up a relatively large amount of space in the processing facility and would present an even greater fire risk for bacon cooking.